AN: Happy Christmas to everyone who celebrates it, and to everyone else, Happy Holidays :) This is a little gift I wanted to get out sooner, but I was having major writers block. I hope you like it, and please leave a review if you did. Even if you didn't, leave a review and let me know how I can do better :)

Song recs:

Black Eyed Peas - Where Is The Love
Sabrina Carpenter - Sue Me
Red Velvet - Psycho

--

Hermione only looked up because she heard him swear, and she thoroughly regretted it.

All around them, the people that were once talking excitedly in that ancient language stopped and turned to face them. She subconsciously stepped closer to Malfoy as she looked around the room, seeking some comfort in the knowledge that at least he was not going to attack her.

"What's going on?" She whispered to him. He just shook his head, he was either being cautious or he was just scared out of his wits too. She guessed the latter.

Slowly, the people around them moved in unison, revealing a small path that led from one side of the gigantic room to the other. There was a single door at the other end of the pathway, and Hermione really did not want to know what was on the other side. They looked at each other, took a steadying breath, then proceeded forward. There was no point in delaying it, if it was meant to happen, it will happen, no resistance from them would matter. Taking the route of least resistance seemed to be the best option, or at least, the least painful one.

For now.

They tried to stretch out how long it took them to walk through the crowd, but that could only last for so long. The entire ballroom was so quiet, the only sounds that were present was the sound of their footfalls and their breathing. By the time they were at the other side of the grand room, the people around them had closed off the pathway, trapping them in front of the door that they were led to. Malfoy reached out a tentative hand to turn the doorknob, Hermione held her breath, praying to whatever entity was up there hoping that tonight would not end in bloodshed and pain. But she knew better than that.

As soon as Malfoy had touched the doorknob, the people around them suddenly fell to the ground, they seemed to like doing things all at once. Hermione looked around, trying to figure out why it had happened, when something else caught her attention.

No… they were not people, they were mannequins. She saw the smooth, empty face of a mannequin whose mask had fallen off when it had crashed onto the ground. Surrounding them were hundreds of mannequins, all laying on the ground, with their heads still turned towards them.

She looked to Malfoy, what little she could see of his face was scrunched up in confusion and terror, she felt the same way, except she thought that she had more fear in her eyes.

He turned the handle and pushed the heavy-looking door open.

It was a dark room, not exactly big but not small either. The walls on either side were lined with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and there was a simple desk and high-backed chair towards the back of the room. She looked around for a source of light, but could not find one. How she missed electricity. Then she tried to summon light via magic, but found that she could not do that either. Was her magic gone? She wouldn't be surprised if they were unable to perform any magic in these nightmares.

She had no time to think about that, because as soon as they had both entered the room, the door slammed shut behind them. Typical horror movie stuff. She let out a small yelp, and reached out a hand to find Malfoy in the sudden darkness. When she found him, she grabbed onto him like her life depended on it, because for all she knew, it just might.

"Granger, lighten up on the grip, I'm losing blood circulation in my arm" Malfoy growled softly, not wanting to raise his voice, but obviously startled by her sudden assault on his wrist. Hermione loosened her grip by a fraction.

They stood pressed together for what felt like a few minutes, neither of them moving or making a noise. Soon enough, her eyes adjusted to the dark and she could make out the faint outlines of the desk and the chair. Looking down, her breathing stopped, there were glowing markings on the floor. She gently tugged on Malfoy's arm to draw his attention towards the floor, then she slowly kneeled down, Malfoy mirroring her movements.

She had to get really close to the floor before she could make out what the glowing markings were, they were several words all smushed together.

Atone.

Betrayer.

Traitor.

Mudblood.

This time, the words weren't in multiple languages, just English. She could tell when Malfoy had made out the words as well when he had tensed up beside her. She couldn't blame him, the last time they had a dream with the word 'atone' in it, they had gotten crucioed enough times to last several lifetimes.

Just as she had read that last disgusting word, she heard a creak from somewhere in the room, and she knew it was not either of them, for neither of them had moved a muscle. The sound seemed to be coming from somewhere in front of them, but not directly so, maybe just a few feet away. She tried her best to make out any figure or just a hint of anyone being there with them, but there was nothing, just the desk and the chair.

Hermione froze.

The chair.

Someone was in the chair, she was certain of it. Although, there hadn't been anyone in that chair when they entered, but then again, this was a nightmare, anything could happen. She tried to stay as still as she possibly could in the crouched position she was in, but her legs were beginning to tire. Beside her, she felt Malfoy slowly move to stand, thinking that it would be better to be standing than crouched on the floor, she grabbed onto him and moved as slowly as she could.

When she had finally made it to her feet, she felt Malfoy's arm get snatched away when they were flung against the bookshelves on either side of the room. She felt more than heard the sickening crunch of what she suspected to be her head against the bookshelf before she fell onto the floor. Slightly dazed and still in shock, with her right ear ringing, she could feel something wet and sticky coating the right side of her head and knew that that couldn't be good.

A faint grunt brought her back to the present.

"Malfoy!" She tried to get up and reach him, but whatever force had sent them flying into the bookshelves had also made a barrier so they couldn't reach each other. It was like there was a wall of glass in between them that just wouldn't break. She thumped on the barrier a few times, the combination of her eyes becoming adjusted to the dark and the glowing of the words on the floor lit the dark room barely enough that she could make out where Malfoy was.

He was at the base of the bookshelves on the other side of the room, he hadn't gotten up yet but she could see him fumbling around groggily, trying to get his bearings back. She was too focused on trying to make out how Malfoy was doing, that she didn't even notice the looming figure that had appeared behind her.

She was lifted off the ground by her neck, whoever it was, was choking her hard enough that she could feel bruises forming. Her legs were flailing around as she tried her best to land a kick on whoever was choking her, but her legs just couldn't cooperate. And just as suddenly as it had attacked her, it threw her on the ground and surged towards Malfoy.

"M… Mal… Malfoy!" She tried her best to warn him, but her throat felt so sore and she was trying to inhale as much air as she could get.

It was entirely too late by the time Malfoy had regained his bearings, the dark figure was right on top of him. It did not grab Malfoy by his throat, instead it had chosen to place a foot onto his chest. Hermione heard a sickening crack and an ear piercing scream from Malfoy, she could only assume that one of his ribs had broken. Try as she might, she could not get to Malfoy, the barrier had not lifted at all.

She could only watch as the figure leaned down and seemed to press more weight onto Malfoy's already broken chest. Then it appeared to be peering at Malfoy, seeming to contemplate something before it reached into its cloak and brought something out.

Even in the dark, she could still make out a knife.

She knew her screaming would provide no help for Malfoy, but it was all she could do as she banged the barrier as hard as she could, trying to distract their attacker.

As the hooded figure brought down the knife onto Malfoy, the only moment of relief she had gotten was that it had not aimed at Malfoy's heart, instead the knife was trained on his arm. Watching the dark figure carve up Malfoy's arm brought her right back to her normal nightmares that contained a similarly crazy and sadistic witch, only she knew how her witch looked like. It took a lot of her concentration to push that memory away and to concentrate on ways to help Malfoy. His screams alone could fuel her nightmares for a long time.

Frantically, she looked around the room trying to see if there was anything she could use to distract it. Her eyes landed on her best friends in the world, books. Standing quickly, she grabbed what felt like a heavy, hard-covered tome and lobbed it to where she thought the attacker was. The book fell short by a couple feet.

She grabbed another heavy book and turned to throw it, but when she turned around, all she saw was black. She had definitely gotten its attention now.

It grabbed her hand that had the book in it and squeezed her wrist hard enough that she definitely felt something break, or at the very least, fractured. She dropped the book in pain, and by some form of luck, it landed on her attackers foot. She heard a low grunt, most likely from a male, she stored that information for later.

When he had recovered from the shock of a book being dropped on his foot, he reached for her head with his other hand and slammed her face first into the bookshelf behind her. Either he had something against bookshelves, or he was really unimaginative.

Blood was now streaming down her nose, but as much as it had hurt, she didn't think her nose was broken. She really hoped her nose wasn't broken, she had enough breathing difficulties as it was.

He brought her head back up and decided to introduce her face to another piece of furniture, this time he had used a bit more creativity and used the desk. She caught the edge of the desk square in her stomach, which caused her to fold in on herself in sheer pain. She fell onto the floor, the only thing that went through her mind was that she was thankful that she had landed on a carpet. But just as she thought that, a heavy weight pressed into her, something sharp and bony was on her chest. She felt the sleeve on her right hand get pulled up, then the figure froze for a split second, it was like it was admiring the markings that marred her forearm. Then it grabbed her other hand, and she immediately knew what was going to happen, it would be a cold day in hell before she took what was going to happen without putting up a fight.

She moved as much as she could under the sharp pain her chest felt, she tried her best to kick her assailant away. She almost got her arm free when she had made contact with his neck, but then he used his magic to stun her.

The next thing she knew, her left arm felt like it was on fire. This was nothing like what Bellatrix had done to her, her knife was simple, cursed, but simple. As crude as it was, at least the only thing it did was cut.

This knife however… this knife burnt.

It was like the knife had been in a fire and dipped in acid just before it touched her skin, she thought she could smell her own burning flesh. It was like being hit with a concentrated form of the cruciatus curse, and every slice doubled the pain that she was already feeling. She thought the knife had cut deep enough to reach her bone, it definitely felt like it. The pain got so intense that she started to see spots in her already dark vision.

Then she was in her bed screaming.

_

All he could remember was the feeling of drowning and burning.

Which didn't make much sense to him, since drowning would mean water and burning would mean fire. Could water be on fire? Probably, magic is a thing after all. He felt like he had been tossed around and kicked by a horde of kangaroos all night. He felt sore all over, but the pain was concentrated mainly in his chest.

He slowly started to fully wake up when the pain in his chest grew too painful to ignore. When he tried moving his arm to help him sit up in bed, blinding pain shot through him and effectively brought him back to reality.

Rolling his sleeves up, he stared at the word that was carved into his skin, where the remnants of his Dark Mark once was, there was only one word that tainted his pale skin, still bloody and bleeding; atone. Then the nightmare fully slammed back into him and he remembered everything. He quickly wrapped his still bleeding arm in whatever fabric he could find, which happened to be a shirt he wore yesterday, and searched for his wand.

After searching for a good couple of minutes, he finally found it under his bed, it had somehow rolled off his nightstand during the night. He quickly tried to cast a healing spell on his arm, but it didn't work. And before he could think more on it, he heard Hermione screaming from her room.

He immediately ran to her room, yanking open her door and rushing straight to where she lay, thrashing against something he couldn't see. He tried to wake her up by shaking and yelling her name, but nothing seemed to work, he could only wait for her to wake up on her own. He tried to hold her down as best as he could, he didn't want her to injure herself more than she probably already had, her nose and the side of her head was bleeding. Just as he held onto her arms to keep them from hitting him, her left forearm began to glow, a bright yellow light filled the room, he had to squint to protect his eyes from the offending light. Then her arm got really warm, almost like she had a very high fever. Then he saw it, letters slowing being etched onto her skin, the same as what he had been branded with.

And just as the word finished forming, she sprang up in her bed, somehow screaming louder than she already was. All he could do was to try to get her to calm down enough so that he could bandage her arm, her blood had already coated his arm and it was getting harder to hold her down.

"Granger! It's me!" he tried to say with as much authority without screaming at her, it didn't work.

"Granger! Calm down, you're safe now!" he tried again, slightly louder this time, but she was still screaming.

"HERMIONE!" he finally yelled, his arm almost losing grip of her wrist. That finally got her to stop screaming.

"Ma… Malfoy?" her voice was hoarse, obviously, she had been screaming for the better part of three minutes.

"Yeah, it's me," he said in as calm a voice as he could, but he could feel his head starting to get a little lighter, almost like he was tipsy off firewhisky. "I've got to wrap your arm up before you lose any more blood."

He could see the moment when everything had finally registered to her, it was like a torch had been lit. Then she nodded and stilled enough that he could wrap it up in a piece of scrap fabric from his own shirt. When he was done, he looked around the room for her wand. "Can you try casting a healing spell? Do you know any that can stop bleeding?" he asked her when he finally located her wand on her nightstand and handed it to her.

"I know a few," she took her wand from him, aimed it at his arm and tried casting a spell, then she tried a couple more. But he felt nothing. "It's not working, you're still bleeding."

"Can you try doing any magic?" the blood loss was starting to get to him, it was getting harder to keep his eyes open. But he did see her try to cast a lumos spell, still nothing. "I thought as much, we're going to have to get to the hospital wing, I'm losing too much blood." He nearly face planted when he had tried to stand, lucky for him, Granger still had fast reflexes. "We're going to have to move quickly, or as quickly as possible. I don't know how much longer I have before I lose consciousness."

Granger had slid his arm around her shoulders and gripped him around his waist, effectively using herself as a crutch. At first he tried to stand on his own and not lean on her too much, she was injured too, but as soon as she figured out what he was trying to do, she snapped at him and told him to just do it so they can get to the hospital wing faster.

Thankfully, their dorm was relatively near the hospital wing, about a four minute walk at a leisurely pace. As soon as they got out of the portrait hole, Granger turned around to the painting, "please tell Madam Pomfrey that we are in dire need of her help, we've been injured and are on the way to the hospital wing." That simple message seemed to get the four inhabitants of the portrait to run as quickly as possible out of their frame and out of their sight. They must look worse than they felt.

They were met halfway by a panicked Madam Pomfrey, in what he could tell was her sleeping robes, and a couple house elfs slightly behind her. And it was at that exact moment when Draco's vision finally went black and the last thing he remembered was Hermione's shocked yelp before he collapsed onto the ground.

When he awoke for the second time that night, it was in a smaller bed and his chest was not as painful as before, it was just a dull ache now. He let out a groan when he moved to sit up, and immediately a house elf popped to his bedside.

"Madam, the boy is awake!" the pale looking house elf called out.

A few hurried footsteps later, and Madam Pomfrey was in front of him. "Oh my word, you're finally awake! Drink this now, quickly," she shoved a small vial of something blue into his mouth, all he could do was to do as he was told. When he gulped the tasteless liquid down, he noticed a couple more figures standing at the foot of his bed, Headmistress McGonagall and Professor Slughorn. "Good, good, that should do the trick for now. How are you feeling?"

"What happened?" he asked back, his mind not catching up just yet.

"You had two broken ribs, a punctured lung, a mild concussion, and this!" she indicated to his bandaged arm. And for the second time that night, he remembered the dream.

Then he remembered that she was injured too. "Where's Granger? Is she alright?" he asked the matron, who was clearly becoming upset that he had evaded answering her question again.

"Miss Granger is recovering now, she sustained a few more injuries than you did, but she has been attended to and is resting now," Professor McGonagall answered instead. "Now, can you please explain to me why my two head prefects are laying in the hospital wing with major injuries and the same word cut into their arms?" she had said it in such a way that was both stern but gentle, that woman was such a contradiction.

And in that moment, he decided that telling her had more pros than cons, they were planning on going to her after all, he just expedited the timeline. So he told her everything, granted, it was one of the most awkward conversations he ever had. He had never spoken to her outside of classes, and generally tried to stay out of her sights as best as he could. But she listened without objections or interruptions, only nodded and scrunched up her face whenever she heard something particularly nasty that had happened to them.

"And that's all we know so far. We were going to come to you for help once we had figured out what was happening to us, but it's been slow progress on figuring out what this is…" he trailed off, not meeting her eyes.

"I see, and thank you for explaining the situation to me, Mr Malfoy. But I would have preferred if either of you had come to me sooner, even if you had no proof or idea what was going on, maybe it could have prevented what occurred tonight," she said in the gentlest tone he had ever heard her use. "But, as I cannot change the past, I shall help you however I can moving forward. I hope to speak to you and Miss Granger once you've both had enough rest. You shall be exempt from classes and head duties for tomorrow, I will delegate the tasks to the other prefects. Rest well, Mr Malfoy."

She had turned to leave, but he remembered something. "Headmaster," she turned around to look at him again, "could you not tell Potter and Weasl… er, Ron?" she raised an eyebrow at his request.

"I would not have told them in the first place unless absolutely necessary, as it is a matter of security for the other students. And if you are worried that they would blame you for what happened, I can assure you that they are not as immature as they once were to misunderstand what happened as a cheap way to get to you, Mr Malfoy."

"No, it's not that. I just know that she didn't want to tell them, I don't think she's changed her mind."

"I see," she nodded. "If that's it, Mr Malfoy, I think it best if you slept now."

He bowed his head slightly at both professors as they left his line of sight. Madam Pomfrey came back and handed him a vial of dreamless sleep potion, which he happily took.

Merlin knew he needed the rest.

And rest he did, for he only woke up at noon the next day.

By that time, the entire hospital wing was filled with bright sunlight from the gigantic windows that lined the walls on all sides. He winced at the sudden intrusion of brightness and held his hands up to shield his eyes. When his eyes finally adjusted, he looked around the room, or at least the parts of the room that he could see, there was a partition curtain to his left. All the beds that he could see were empty, which meant that Granger should be on the bed to his left.

"Granger?" he said softly, not wanting to draw too much attention. But even then, the house elves could hear him, and one popped up right in front of him.

"Madam, the boy is awake again!" the same elf from last night announced loudly. He grimaced at the loud voice, and at the footsteps that followed. Sure enough, Madam Pomfrey was there with three vials in her hands.

"Oh good, good, you're awake. I hope you had a good rest last night," she said as she checked the bandages around his arm and chest, making sure that nothing was amiss. "Looks alright, here, take these." He took the vials from her hand, one colourless, one bright red, and one pale green. He did not look forward to drinking the green one, but drank it nonetheless, knowing it was for the best.

All he could do was to thank Merlin for magic, he did not know how he would have survived if he had to recover the way muggles did. The effect of the potions was almost instantaneous, the pounding in his head was now a dull throb, as was the ache in his chest. Madam Pomfrey left once he had taken the potions as instructed and went to check on something or another.

"Malfoy?" Grangers voice called from the bed next to his, sure enough, when he pulled the curtain back, there was Granger, to his left, laying on her bed, her forehead wrapped up like a Christmas present. "Are you okay? I slept through the night once we got here, I didn't know what happened."

"I'm good, all patched up now. McGonagall came by last night with Slughorn and asked what happened." He knew there was no point in asking how she felt, she was definitely more injured than him, but he could tell that she was feeling better already.

"Did you tell her?"

"Yeah, but she wants to talk to us today. She said that she will help us," he was now slowly making his way through the porridge that the house elf had placed on the table for him. Granger was halfway done with her bowl.

She nodded to his news, but then she stilled. "She's not going to tell Harry and Ron is she?"

"I told her not to, that you didn't want them to know," he reassured her, she released a breath, most likely in relief.

"Thank you," she said after a few moments, "for telling her not to tell them."

He nodded in acknowledgement, "I might not fully understand or agree with your decision, but they are your friends, so it's up to you."

Shortly after they finished their porridge, Professor McGonagall entered the hospital wing, stopping in between their beds.

"I'm glad you both made it through the night alright," she greeted them, patting Granger's hand as she said it. "But I will need to know what has been happening from your perspective, Miss Granger. Mr Malfoy has already told me the events from his point of view, but I would like as full a picture as I can get to best aid you in this… unpleasant situation."

And so, Granger told the professor what has been going on from her knowledge, but Draco already knew all of it, or at least most of what happened. He didn't know what happened to her towards the end of the dream, when he had already woken up. He listened to her detail her brutal attack, how it had stopped at the sight of the scar that his aunt had given her before it proceeded to scar her in a similar way on her other arm. That almost made him throw up what he had just eaten.

At the end of Granger's recollection, he added how the scar seemed to be burnt into her arm from the dream, how bright the room had gotten as the letters appeared on her skin.

"And you're very sure it was a bright yellow light?" McGonagall clarified.

"Very, it almost blinded me from how bright it was."

"Interesting, as yellow is usually associated with bright and positive things, not harm or danger," the old witch seemed to say more to herself than to either of them. "Thank you for telling me all of this. But I'm afraid I do not know what this is either. Would I be correct in assuming that informing the other professors are alright with the two of you?"

They looked at one another and had a silent conversation with their eyes, he didn't know how they did it, but they seemed to come to an understanding. They nodded at the headmaster and gave her permission, surely having more experienced people to help them could only lead to positive outcomes, right?

"Well, I will ensure that they do not inform the other students, only professors will be told. As for the two of you, I will ask Madam Pince to grant you full access to the restricted section, surely this is the work of very dark magic. I'm sure this goes without saying that only you two will be able to use the books and books are not to be taken out of that section," she looked to the two students for confirmation before continuing. "And I will have to inform your parents and Aurors, I will ask Kingsley to put his best on this case and keep it as confidential as possible."

That alarmed Draco, "Professor," he started, "could you possibly not tell my mother just yet? I don't want to upset her, she's not in the best state right now."

McGonagall pursed her lips, but then sighed, "normally I would say no, but as you are of age, your decision is final. Although I strongly suggest telling your mother as soon as possible, for when she finally finds out, she would be more devastated that you hadn't told her in the first place."

And with that, the headmistress bid them a good day and left.

_

"He's there again?" Theo said in a voice that was both annoyed and concerned.

"Yeap," he replied, popping the 'p'. "I tried their dorm this morning, but no one answered, eventually Helena told me where they were."

"I will never understand how you manage to charm paintings," the other boy said with a sigh, "I mean, they are paintings after all!"

"It's my secret weapon," Bliase winked and hooked his arm around the slightly shorter boy. "Come on, let's go see our little Drakey." Theo just rolled his eyes at him, but didn't protest.

Upon entering the hospital wing, they realized that they weren't alone, there were a total of four heads at the beds, two blonde, one red and one brown.

"Looks like there's a party going on," he said to announce their arrival. All four heads turned to their direction, only Luna smiled back at him.

"Hello Blaise," Luna greeted. "Hello Theo," she said when Theo stepped out from behind him.

"Good afternoon, lovely people, what brings you lot to this wonderful place?" he made his way to Draco's bedside and sat on the bed next to where the boy lay.

"Why are you here?" Draco asked in his usual gruff tone, but Blaise could tell that he was happy that they were here.

"Why to see you of course," he leaned over to plant a kiss on Draco's forehead, but the blonde snake moved surprisingly quickly for someone who had just been admitted into the hospital wing, that he ended up kissing his chest instead. "You sly devil," Blaise teased.

"We're just here to make sure you're alive," Theo said from the foot of Draco's bed, that boy really needed to learn how to be a bit more affectionate sometimes.

"I'm alive, happy?" Draco indicated to his body that seemed to have bandages around his chest and forearm, but other than that he appeared to be fine.

"Thrilled," Theo said in a voice that indicated otherwise.

"Ugh, men," Ginny said from Hermione's bedside, Blaise had almost forgotten they were there.

Blaise just laughed at her comment. "Oh, that's just how they express their feelings. Toxic masculinity and all that has made it hard for them to comfortably showcase their love for one another in ways that do not include insults or jabs at one another."

"Sounds about right," Hermione agreed, smiling like she wanted to laugh but was holding back.

Draco and Theo both rolled their eyes at his statement, they've heard Blaise lecture them enough on the subject that they didn't dare say anything in fear that they might awaken the femenist in Blaise. Jokes on them, the femenist in him never slept.

"So I take it that the two of you know about their situation?" Blaise asked Luna and Ginny, who nodded.

"We only just found out about it recently too."

"We should brainstorm ways to keep them safe, I have a feeling that purple tea and ox-horn essence won't be enough," Luna said dreamily. Blaise had no clue what either of those were, but agreed.

"Shall we discuss it now, since we are all present?" Blaise suggested.

"Sounds good, I'll grab a couple more chairs," Ginny and Theo looked around for chairs for them to sit on while Luna brought out parchment and quills for them to take notes on and Blaise took out the snacks from lunch for them to snack on.

It was going to be a long day.

--

I hope you liked the tiny Blaise POV at the end, let me know if you'd be interested in reading more from other characters POV's.

Once again, please leave a review, it really helps with my writing and getting me over any writers block that I may have. :)